by Alan Black
Flacco grabbed Tasso’s towel and wrapped it around Tasso’s head. Everything went dark. Tasso tried to pull the towel away from his face, but hands knocked his arms away. Blows rained on him from three sides.
Tasso’s knees buckled and he fell to the deck. He tried to cover up, but fists continued to come at him from every direction. It stopped as quickly as it started. Tasso didn’t know why they quit hitting him, not that it mattered why, just that they did. He clawed the towel away from his face. He lay there trying to catch his breath. Cruz and his pals were gone. He could hear them moving in the other room, but he didn’t care. They could go anywhere they wanted as long as they weren’t beating him anymore. He worked his way to his feet. His towel was soaked. He wrung out as much water as he could and hung it on a hook. He turned the water back on and winced as the warm liquid rinsed blood away from his arm.
His tears for his grandfather were gone. He realized he was as angry with his grandfather as he was with his mother. He knew Grandpa didn’t want to die and leave him like his mother did, but he was gone just the same. He was angry with Uncle Bruce for sending him away. Maybe his uncle didn’t know what to do with a teenage boy, but it still made Tasso feel discarded and abandoned. He was jetsam, just as Cherry had said. He was angry with the man who started all this by having sex with his mother and then leaving her alone. The hot water could wash away the tears, but it only seemed to heat up his anger. Strangely enough, Tasso found he wasn’t angry with Cruz or even Dougall Lamont. He didn’t like them, but they hadn’t run out on him or left him alone. They faced him with honest hostility.
He dried off as best he could with the damp towel. He hoped Cruz was gone from the dressing room side of the bathroom. He was ready to continue the fight if they were ready, but next time he would make sure he was somewhere he could get his back to a wall and not be attacked from behind.
Cruz and company were gone. So were his robe and slippers.
Tasso wrapped the damp towel around his waist and walked calmly to his cabin. His luck didn’t hold out as he passed a gaggle of teenage girls. He’d seen them all at one time or another. He was unconcerned about what most of them thought of him, but Anisa led the gaggle. He did care what she thought of him. He nodded politely and continued toward his cabin. He kept his face passive as if being half-naked in the corridor was a common occurrence. Most of the girls giggled and stared openly. Anisa turned her head away and refused to look.
Barely past Anisa and her friends, Tasso stopped in the corridor at a wall mounted first aid kit. He appreciated the thought of having first aid kits readily available all over the ship, but he wondered at the paranoia of the person who had them screwed into wall mounts in every corridor on every deck of the ship. Having read the manual in the trainee cabin he shared with Rod, he knew opening a first aid kit would automatically alert the medical bay. He didn’t give a hoot who got an alert, his arm was still bleeding from the gouges inflicted by Eber’s fingernails. He grabbed a can of liquid bandage, flipped the lid, and sprayed his arm.
He was trying to hold the spray exactly six inches away from his skin, as per the directions, and still spray the back of his arm when the can twisted out of his grasp. He clenched his fist. He barely stopped himself from throwing a punch.
Anisa looked at his clenched fist. “Put your fist away, Señor Menzies. Hold still.” She stretched his bloody arm, holding it away from his body. Her hand was warm against his damp skin. He closed his eyes, telling himself to calm down.
Anisa said, “Here Kendra, hold his arm out tight. This bandage won’t coagulate if he is all wet with blood.” She handed his arm to another girl. She was matter of fact about the way she handled his wet, naked arm. Tasso felt he was no more than a test dummy in a schoolroom exercise. “Sabrina, grab a sponge from the first aid kit—” Anisa said.
Sabrina said, “Eeeewwww. He’s leaking all over.”
“I am fine, ladies.” Tasso said. “I can take care of this.”
Anisa barked, “Cállate, Señor Menzies!”
Tasso did as he was told. He shut up.
A voice blared from a speaker in the first aid kit. “Tasso Menzies, you have opened the first aid kit. Are you or others nearby injured?”
Tasso jumped at the voice. The damp towel at his waist started to slip open. He grabbed it with his free hand. One hand wasn’t enough to hold it up so he pulled his injured arm away from Kendra and gripped his towel tighter. He wasn’t used to having this many girls around, or even just one for that matter. Standing almost naked in front of all these girls was more than he could handle. He was going to embarrass all of them if they didn’t quit pawing at him.
Anisa said, “This is Anisa Rojo-Graham in trainee corridor—”
“No, Anisa. This is Doctor Valenzuela and you didn’t open the first aid kit. Tasso Menzies opened it. Is he unable to speak? Do we need to dispatch a med team? Otto, grab Carlito and get a move on.”
Tasso said, “I’m alright, Doctor. I have a little scratch on my arm. I wanted to use the liquid bandage to stop the bleeding.”
“Nonsense,” Valenzuela said. “The first aid kit scanner shows you are in distress. Elevated pulse, temperature up, a lot of blood flowing from your brain to your … oh, well it may have something to do with your corridor clothing choice and the fact that you have a team of cheerleaders energetically searching you for other injuries.”
Anisa huffed in exasperation, “We were only trying to help.”
Valenzuela said, “Go do your teenage huff at someone else.”
Otto stepped up behind Anisa. He gently lifted the spray can from her hand.
Valenzuela commanded, “Carlito, you clear the corridor. Otto, check on Menzies. The scanner is reading head injuries and bruising along the ribcage.”
Otto winked at Anisa and mouthed, “Thanks. Good job.”
Valenzuela said, “I saw that Otto. Yes, okay, Anisa. You and Kendra did a good job. Sabrina, not so much. Now, señoritas, get on with your Saturday.”
Tasso knew enough Spanish words by now to know to call the girls señoritas, but he was Scottish. He refused to turn into a Texican. He said, “Thanks to all of you ladies. I appreciate—”
“Menzies, explain the incident,” Valenzuela interrupted.
Tasso shrugged. Since he couldn’t see the doctor, he looked up at Otto. “I slipped in the shower and scratched myself. The hot water from my shower makes it look like it’s bleeding more than it really is.”
“Nonsense,” Valenzuela said. “You have three parallel gouges down your arm. What did you do, slip against the Wolverine?”
“Wolverine?”
“Wolverine! X-Men? Storm? Blaze? Good God, Tasso ... never mind.” Valenzuela almost shouted. “When you slipped, did you hit your head?”
Tasso nodded. “Um, yes, ma’am. I mean, yes, Doctor Valenzuela.”
Otto’s voice dripped with sarcasm, “Yes, according to the scan, he slipped six times hitting his head each time and it looks like he slipped another four times banging his ribs against … something. It’s nothing serious, Doctora. He must have a hard head.”
Valenzuela asked, “Bleeding?”
Otto said, “Stopped and bandaged. DNA trace on the arm gouging taken, recorded, and collated.”
Valenzuela said, “Menzies, get your half-naked ass out of the hallway. I have enough problems without you giving a dozen girls the vapors. Otto, you had best bust nuts and get back up here. We have an epidemic of young boys slipping in the shower. I have a patient with a broken nose. It’s easy to fix, but I need your hands to help hold him still. And we have a broken hand. Also easy to fix, but unfortunately it belongs to Eber Rojo.”
Carlito groaned. “Oh hijo de puta! There goes Friday’s game against the Red Spiders.”
Valenzuela grunted, “It’s worse than that. Flacco has a twisted ankle. He’s going to have to stay off his feet for at least a week. Hell, a break we could fix in a couple of days, but a sprain has to heal all on its own.”
Otto laughed, “Quarterback and defensive end, both out. It’s a good thing I didn’t place any bets yet.”
Tasso left everyone behind as he closed the hatch to his cabin. His arm hurt and he felt bruised all over, but he still felt exhilarated. Cruz and his friends may have beaten him up, but they took worse than they gave.
He pulled on a new coverall, dropping the old coverall and the wet towel into the laundry chute. Whistling to himself, he walked out into a corridor full of youngsters. They all stopped talking when he walked past. He grinned in spite of himself. He knew Cruz wouldn’t let this pass without another confrontation, but he was going to try his best to avoid round two.
Tasso decided he might have to stay in the attic for a month to let things cool down. The huge bay was actually a quiet place to sleep. Rodrigo didn’t deliberately wake him up, but that’s what he did every morning no matter how quiet the younger boy tried to be.
Tio Gabe wouldn’t mind. He already allowed Tasso to build a comfortable pile of packing material that made for a nice bed. He would have to slip out for showers, meals and to change clothes. He stopped. Tasso decided he wasn’t going to run and hide. He had a mental picture of his little valley. He loved the place, but he’d been hiding there his whole life. Rather than hunt down the man who had disgraced his mother, he’d hidden away. He’d been only five when his mother let Ol’ Ben kill her, far too young to track down Tas Ortiz, but Tasso was no longer a toddler.
He owned the little valley. Maybe there was no way he could get back to keep his uncle from stealing it, but the land, valley, house and even Ol’ Ben were his and he would never stop fighting to get them back. He would never again use his home as a hideout. He knew he’d just accused Uncle Bruce of trying to and most likely succeeding in stealing his valley. Uncle or not, Tasso would get it back. His uncle walked away from his family. He walked away from being a Menzies. Family didn’t walk away from family, therefore Bruce Menzies was no longer family, no longer his uncle. So be it.
Tasso felt good. His head quit hurting, his ribs felt tight, but not painful. He smiled. So far, it had been a good day off. He actually found some amazing machinery hidden in a back corner of the attic. Finding usable goods in the huge warehouse was like winning a treasure hunt. He talked to two pretty women in a lingerie shop. That was an experience without comparison. He had two pretty girls his own age holding his hand … well, his arm, but that was close enough. Thinking about Anisa’s warm hand on his naked arm started him chuckling to himself. He’d have to try holding hands again, sometime when he wasn’t bleeding.
He’d also survived a good fight. It didn’t matter if Tio Gabe didn’t approve. He’d tried to avoid the fight, but when there was no way out, he gave as good as he got. His grandfather would have approved of that. From what the doctor said, it sounded like he gave better than he got. The only downside was a lot of the crew wasn’t going to be happy with him since he messed up their football game.
Football? What was Texican football? He was going to have to look it up on the shipnet. First, he had a mission to handle and a promise to keep.
CHAPTER 13
TASSO THOUGHT he found Tio Gabe in record time. What he found was the old man’s locator attached to his dataport on the floor in the middle of the attic. The old man was nowhere in sight. Tasso climbed to the top of a pile of junk and slowly turned in a 360-degree circle, but he couldn’t see the old man anywhere. He didn’t know where Tio Gabe went when he wandered off. The attic was a huge storage bay. It would take him all day to look for the old man. Even a few hours were too long if Gabe was hurt. His original reason for looking for his supervisor was to ask about using the ribbon maker for Cherry, but now his worry for Tio Gabe overrode that reason.
He switched on his comm-unit. “Security? This is Tasso Menzies in Aunt Aggie’s attic.”
The voice replied, “Menzies, well, well, well. Did you beat up any more football teams?”
Tasso couldn’t tell if the person behind the voice was angry or amused. He decided to try for amusement. “Been a couple of hours, why? Do you have an epidemic of out of control teenage boys running wild that you need help with?”
“Funny man, I’ll have you know one of those boys you attacked was my nephew and—”
A second voice said, “Cállate, pendajo. Sorry, Menzies. This is Security Sergeant Timothy Rodriguez. How may we help you?”
Tasso said, “Señor. I was looking for my supervisor. I found Tio Gabe’s dataport and his locator, but not him. I’m concerned he’s lost and hurt somewhere. I didn’t know who else to call to get help finding him.”
Rodriguez said, “You called the right place. Hold still.” He came back after a minute. “Okay. I’m only getting one heat signature in the attic. That’s you, because it matches up exactly to where your locator says you are. Go to the main storage bay hatch and wait there for me. I’ll round up a few boys and we’ll start a sweep for Tio Gabe.”
Tasso climbed down the pile of junk and wound his way around pile after pile of equipment, machinery, boxes, and plain junk. He made mental notes on a dozen things he saw, but he didn’t slow down his dash to the hatch. He was still amazed at how big the storage bay was. The last hundred yards of the bay was completely empty. In the clear, Tasso ran to the hatch.
Security Sergeant Rodriguez was waiting for him by the closed hatch, staring at the wall of items stored there. “I haven’t been in here in years,” he said. “It still looks like a wall of multicolored rubble stacked bulkhead to bulkhead, deck-to-rafters, with only a few paths through it.”
Tasso said, “Yes sir, I was impressed with all of the stuff in here when I first saw it too, and the more I see, the more impressed I become. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in here. Did you know that about a third of the way back on the left side—”
“Port side,” Rodriguez interrupted.
Tasso nodded. “Yes, sir, sorry. On that side over there,” he pointed left. “There’s an old cannon?”
Rodriguez looked startled. “Cannon? What the...?”
Tasso grinned at the man’s expression. “I originally thought the crate was mismarked or something, but I got a few boards off and inside is exactly what the outside says. That’s my point about Tio Gabe. No one knows what’s in here or even how to get around and check all of the small hidey-holes. This place could hide a horde of stobors and no one would know it until they attacked.”
“You have stobors in here!” Rodriguez shouted. He pulled his sidearm before Tasso could explain.
“No, sir. I don’t think so. Do you have stobors on New Texas?”
“Hell’s bells, Menzies. Every planet except Earth has stobors. They’re different on every planet and every one is more dangerous than the next. Don’t scare me like that.”
“Sorry, sir. I thought they were only Saronno creatures.”
Rodriguez sighed and holstered his weapon. “I get your point about Tio Gabe. You’d never find him if he was hurt. Now this is blunt, but if Gabriel Rojo is in here, he’s beyond hurt. Otherwise he would have registered on our heat scans.”
“Where should we go look for him?”
Rodriguez said, “We stay put, right here. I have a half a dozen crew and more arriving all the time to look for him. Even the captain is on her way down here to help in the search.”
“The captain is coming down here?”
“Well, probably not here. This is the center point of our search. The rest of us call Gabe tio as a title of honor. He’s really the captain’s uncle. He raised her, so she’ll jump into this search with both feet. Don’t get me wrong. We’ll pull this kind of search for anyone who’s gone missing, but Tio Gabe and young children are a priority for everybody.” He held up one finger to Tasso. “Wait.”
Tasso’s dataport emitted three high-pitched squeals. A male voice blared from both his and Rodriguez’s comm-units. “Hold for the captain.”
“Captain Rojo here. This is a missing crewmember alert. Anyone knowing t
he whereabouts of Tio Gabe Rojo is to report on it to security at once. Volunteers for a search party are to stand by.”
The hatch popped open. The captain and her brother, the purser, strode purposefully into the room. Her eyes raked across Rodriguez. She was about to speak to him when she noticed Tasso.
“You?” she said. “What’re you doing here?”
Tasso shrugged, “This is where you assigned me to be, Captain. The first night I came aboard you said I should work in here with Tio Gabe.”
The captain said, “That was… what, Billy? Three ports ago? Why’re you still working here? Never mind. We’ll deal with you later. Believe me, young man, we will talk. This is the third time you have been brought to my attention today. I don’t like to hear about trainees even once on a Saturday. Three times is some kind of record.”
Bill Rojo poked his sister with a finger. “Um, Lilianna, it really should be four times. I needed to get on your schedule to talk about Señor Menzies.”
The captain shook her head. “Finding Tio Gabe is our first order of business. Sergeant Rodriguez?”
Rodriguez nodded to Tasso. “Menzies here found Gabe’s locator and dataport somewhere in this mess.” He gestured to the stacks of cast off in the attic. “He knew he couldn’t search this place by himself, so he called us. We did a complete scan of the attic. Gabe isn’t in here. We called Al, who has a cabin next to Gabe’s to check on his cabin, but Tio Gabe wasn’t in his bunk.”
Tasso interrupted, “Did Al check the shower room?”
Rodriguez shook his head. “Only trainees have communal shower rooms. Crew quarters have private facilities.”
That startled Tasso. He had no idea there were even private cabins, much less, private bathrooms on the ship. He decided to keep his mouth shut around the captain. It already sounded like he was in trouble. He supposed the three reports related to his fight with Cruz, Ivan, Eber, and Flacco. It did sound like only three of the four had been hurt enough to seek medical attention. He didn’t know what report the purser might have on him. Maybe he used too much water when he showered. Grandpa always said he spent too much time in the shower. Maybe there was a time limit and he was costing too much money.